The Nordic Tribe

Living amongst this Nordic community is truly a gift and it’s been so great to see everyone this winter as many of us have evolved from being fierce race competitors and rivals to being life long friends and caring about each other in many ways but especially as a tribe and Nordic community overall.  

Nordic Dave last regaled you with a story called “Self Evac” over a year ago, a story about getting yourself (with the help of friends)  out of some serious trouble while injured in the back country. Yup it took a while to heal up from a lot of broken bones. 20 pounds later , he’s back loving throwing down some interval workouts and contemplating weight loss possibly with less beer intake.   

6 races later (3 classic & 3 skate), ND is starting to find some form as the season ends with something to build on. Little things that make your skis go faster are rediscovered in movement and it’s the movement that brings the joy in the first place. The best part however is reconnecting with his Nordic tribe, such awesome people you are ! Back in the day a lot of us gravitated here from other sports, there wasn’t a Junior Nordic program and for many skating didn’t exist either.  

Which brings ND to last weekend’s oldie but goodie West Yellowstone Rendezvous one of the original signature events of ski marathons in the U.S. This event for many years was dominated by masters skiers, today no more as a multitude of youngsters show up and dominate. It does bring a smile to see both youth and old schoolers in one place in one race. Starting out in the 25k Classic event we are finding our rhythm 4k into the woods and ND shouts out, “hey Mitzy is that you?” …uh ya came the reply , “who’s that?” It’s Nordic Dave…”oh hey ND !” . Next came “hey Dave”…”.yaah ? who’s that? ….”it’s Jeff Minima ”….”hey Jeff !”. Mitzy Bowman from Bozeman and Jeff from Salt Lake, fun !!  

A while later ND’s kickwax is gone and he has to let Jeff and Mitzy  go, he’s skiing alone and making a right turn on the inside and he can hear skis behind him and makes a right hand signal indicating he’s going inside right. Immediately he hears  sounds of “WHAA”…..and whoosh……It’s Graham Houtsman from Bozeman a young buck just killing it and laying waste to the entire field of 50k skaters behind him. Graham is inches from hitting a tree on the edge of the track executes an adrenaline filled flawless turn at speed and continues on with a vengeance and as he ultimately buries the 2nd place skier by 6 minutes in the race. ND supposes there are more to come and to be more mindful lest he become that clueless old dude mindlessly driving slow in the left lane of the freeway. Minutes later indeed the lead packs of skaters are coming through, whoosh they go by. Perfect technique, excellent physical conditioning they make it look easy and beautiful. Yup we’ve come a long way as a Nordic nation. At the Olympics , ND just smiled, he remembers everyone of those kiddos from their development youth ski years and going through NNF funded development programs. Ultimately Gus Schumacher winning at Junior Worlds back in 2020 announcing his arrival and not taking crap from nobody. John Ogden smiling down from heaven on his son Ben. John had spent a lifetime helping out with NENSA, a tight knit Nordic community they are ! 

A week before West Yellowstone, ND was at Giants Ridge in Biwabik, MN. This race course is perfect, no idea why more people don’t do this race. He says howdy to Deb Maki who has run this race for decades. Deb and her crew put a a flawless race every year often in challenging conditions. A day later ND stops by Don Pollari’s house (Hiihto Don) house in Duluth. HD and ND could get into it back in the day. We waste no time catching up on Tribal matters, Don had an excellent race at the Birkie and is presently at the grand daddy of them all, the Birken in Norway. Go get’em  HD! 

Meanwhile back out on course in West Yellowstone, the kick wax is gone, the long climb out of Windy Ridge becomes brutal trying to double pole, vision becomes a tunnel and blurry, ND doesn’t remember topping out where he once surprised Brian Gregg on bended knee proposing to Caitlin one day during Thanksgiving years ago. He’s heading back to the biathlon range and the déjà vu loop with 8k to go. Going up the Déjà vu climb a guy passes him , he looks to be about ND’s age, he ahead by 10 or 15 seconds. Frantically chasing him trying to close the gap, we pull even on the last hill. There’s 2k to go downhill into the biathlon range then the flats back to the finish. Welcome to my world ND thinks as there is nothing left to do but double pole. We launch hard into a double pole throwdown festival. It doesn’t get much better than this, the  season ender with 2k to go with a dude your age. Thank you with gratitude to Rob Murphy from Wilson, Wyoming that was indeed fun ! Thank you to Jack Hart for being “Smilin’ Jack” and putting on such a great event!  

Post race feed and ND finds Alex Hall from Winthrop, Wa & Joan Scheingrabber  from Ketchum, ID. They are oldies but goodies as life long friends, a young man with Alex is a recovering competitive cyclist who remarks as to what a cool chill tribe we are welcoming others to join our tribe !  

Finally a shout out to David Christopherson from Minneapolis who asked ND at the Boulder Mountain Tour why he hasn’t read anything about the Nordic Dave Adventure Series lately. We (our Nordic Tribe) in every corner of our tribal lands have put together something truly remarkable as a Nordic ski culture that is thriving while challenged in oh so many ways. The Finns call that Sisu. 

From the Nordic Dave Adventure Series.